I make a few spoons now and then, but I also try many different projects, from knitting to carving, and everything in between. This is my journey, if you can even call it that. Thoughts, ideas, failures and successes for all to see.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

My brother asked me a few weeks ago if I could make him a set of Whoopie slings. As usual, he sent along a Youtube video that showed some instructions. He has done this before with his request for a fishing bracelet. That reminds me, I need to make a few more of those.

Before he sent me that video I really didn't even know what a whoopie sling was. In case you don't know, a whoopie sling is used to attach a hammock to a connection point. Its benefits are the fact that it is light weight and adjustable. After watching the video, I told him I could get it done. Of course, life got in the way. Several business trips later though, I finally sat down and knocked this little project out.

As with most things, the thought of creating the whoopie sling ended up being much more difficult than it truly was. I made my first one in probably 20 minutes and the second one in less time. I could provide a tutorial, but really, just go check out this video by Matt Ukhammocks. I will say that his method is a bit fiddly, I actually ended up using a piece of wire to pull the ends through, but I think it may have had more to do with my bad taping job than anything else. No matter how you do it, removing a few strands from the end of the Amsteel cord was a tremendous help.

The fixed loop at the end of the sling, called a fixed brummel, is actually pretty easy and the technique that is shown in the video is exactly what I did. The difficult part for me was hiding the tail within the cord itself, its a tight turn with a short end to work with. This was also true for the back splice ending after the constriction splice was done.

I paid $7 (US) for 25 feet of Amsteel Blue plus shipping. I probably should have looked around a bit more, I have a feeling shipping charges were a bit on the high side.for sure. The other materials I used were items that I already had at home, a pair of scissors, a pen to start my holes (as seen in the video) and some wire to help make the splices easier.

Trust me, you CAN make these. It takes a little bit of patience and some time, but it is very doable. Why pay $15-$20 for a set of these when you can make your own for a fraction of that cost? The slings made here are scalable. You can easily increase the length of the slings just by adding more cord. These are 6 foot whoopie slings.

Thanks for reading, go out and make something with your hands. You won't regret it.